Cecilia String Quartet with Patricia Parr

m UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO

FACULTY OF MUSIC

2017-2018

season of events

Cecilia String Quartet

with Patricia Parr, piano

Monday, March 5, 2018
7:30 pm

Walter Hall, 80 Queen’s Park

The Cecilia String Quartet is the James D. Stewart Quartet in Residence.

We wish to acknowledge this land on which the University of Toronto operates.
For thousands of years it has been the traditional land of the Huron-Wendat,
the Seneca, and most recently, the Mississaugas of the Credit River.

Today, this meeting place is still the home to many Indigenous people from across
Turtle Island and we are grateful to have the opportunity to work on this land.

Program

Cecilia String Quartet

Valerie Li, violin*

Sarah Nematallah, violin
Caitlin Boyle, viola
Claire Bryant, cello*

with special guest Patricia Parr, piano

String Quartet No. 3 in D Major, Qp. 18 No. 3 Ludwig van Beethoven

i. Allegro (1770-1827)

ii. Andante con moto

iii. Allegro

iv. Presto

String Quartet No. 3 Katarina Curcin

(b. 1971)

Intermission

Piano Quintet No. 2, Qp. 81 Antonin Dvorak

I. Allegro ma non tanto (1841 -1904)

ii. Dumka Andante con moto

iii. Scherzo-Furiant: Molto vivace - Poco tranquillo

iv. Finale: Allegro

Patricia Parr, piano

*From October 2017 to May 2018, Valerie Li wiii be performing in place of violinist
Mln-Jeong Koh and Claire Bryant will be performing in piace of cellist Rachel Desoer.

BLOORST.

CULTURE

CORRIDOR

The Faculty of Music is a partner of the Bloor St. Culture Corridor
bloorstculturecorridor.com

Biographies

Hailed for its “powerful” {Chicago
Sun-Times) and “dauntingly perfect”
{Beriiner Zeitung) performances,
the Cecilia String Quartet has
performed for leading presenters
around the world. Past engagements
include performances at the
Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Berlin
Konzerthaus, Prague’s Rudolfinum,
the Library of Congress, the Buffalo
Chamber Music Society, and
London’s Wigmore Hall. CSQ’s
live concert recordings have been
broadcast on more than a dozen
international public radio networks,
including Australia (ABC Classical
FM), Canada (CBC/SRC), the
United States (WQXR), Germany
(DeutschlandRadio), and England
(BBC Radio 3). The Cecilia String
Quartet is currently based in
Toronto, where it is the James D.
Stewart Quartet-in-Residence at
the University of Toronto Faculty of
Music.

In addition to performing, the CSQ
has recorded for ANALEKTA. The
group’s debut album of music by
Dvorak in 2012 was acclaimed
for its “deeply felt imperativeness”
{The Strad), and its 2013 recording
featuring music by Janacek, Berg,
and Webern, was applauded
for “unleashing the ecstasy and
angst of the music” {Gramophone
Magazine). The Quartet’s 2016
recording of string quartets by Felix
Mendelssohn was nominated for a
Juno Award, and was named as one
of Gramophone Magazine’s 10 Best
Mendelssohn Recordings.

Prize-winners at several international
competitions, including Qsaka
(2008) and Bordeaux (2010), the
Cecilias were awarded First Prize at
the 2010 Banff International String
Quartet Competition (BISQC), where
they also won the prize for the best
performance of the commissioned
work. Their commitment to new
works can be seen through their
project Celebrating Canadian Women
in Music, a spotlight on a ‘quartet’ of
immensely talented female Canadian
composers that involved four new
commissions that the CSQ premiered
and performed across Canada, the
United States and Europe.

Enthusiastic educators and mentors
to the next generation of chamber
musicians, the CSQ members have
held teaching posts at festivals,
conservatories and universities across
Canada and the United States, both
as an ensemble and as individuals.

All of the CSQ members are currently
adjunct professors at the University
of Toronto, where they work with
music performance majors, as well
as engage in collaborative projects
with the Composition Department
and Department of Humanities.
Initiatives developed by the CSQ
at the University of Toronto include
the Music Mentorship Program,
and the String Quartet Composition
Competition.

Deeply committed to outreach, the
CSQ began developing educational
presentations on classical music and
the string quartet while it served as

String-Quartet-in-Residence at San
Diego State University from 2007 to
2009. Since that time, the group has
conducted hundreds of educationai
presentations across Canada, the
United States, Italy and France. The
Quartet has presented for a wide
variety of organizations, such as
the Monarch Schooi for Homeiess
Youth, Veteran’s Viliage for Homeless
Veterans, Learning Through the Arts
at the RCM, and the SL7\C National
Accelerator Laboratory. CSQ also
developed a series of concerts called
Xenia Concerts that were customized
to appeal to, and be welcoming of,
children on the autism spectrum
and their families. This organization
is now a registered charity under
the direction of CSQ violinist Sarah
Nematallah. More information can be
found at www.xeniaconcerts.com.

Min-Jeong Koh plays on a ca. 1767
Joannes Baptista Guadagnini violin,
Sarah Nematallah plays on an 1851
Jean Baptiste Vuillaume violin, and
Rachel Desoer performs on a 1929
Carlo Giuseppe Qddone cello, all
on loan from an anonymous donor.
Caitlin Boyle plays on a 2002 viola
by Joseph Curtin. The Quartet would
like to thank the anonymous donor,
the Canada Council for the Arts, the
Qntario Arts Council, and the Toronto
Arts Council for their generous
support.

From Qctober 2017 to May 2018, the
CSQ is happy to welcome violinist
Valerie Li, who will perform with the
quartet and take part in teaching
and other CSQ activities at the
University of Toronto. Li will perform
in place of violinist Min-Jeong Koh,

who departed the quartet in Qctober
2017 to honour personal project
commitments.

Valerie Li is well known to Canadian
and international audiences through
her work in the Juno-nominated
Afiara Quartet. With this award¬
winning ensemble, Li has toured
throughout the Americas, Europe,
Asia and Australia, performing at
such venues as Carnegie Hall,

Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center,
Wigmore Hall, the Kennedy Center,
Amsterdam’s Muziekgebouw and the
Royal Library in Copenhagen. She
currently tours extensively with DJ
Kid Koala in the multidisciplinary live
production of Nufonia Must Fall.

Valerie Li received her Bachelor of
Music from the Peabody Institute,
her Master of Music from the New
England Conservatory, and her Artist
Diploma from the Juilliard School.

Her teachers include Miriam Fried,
Herbert Greenberg and Gwen
Thompson, with whom she studied in
her hometown of Vancouver.

Applauded by the Globe and Mall
(Toronto) for her “velvety sound”
and the “fine-grained fluidity of her
playing,” Sarah Nematallah is a
founding member of the Cecilia
String Quartet. She has performed
internationally as an orchestral and
chamber musician for organizations
such as the Verbier Festival and the
Banff Summer Arts Festival, and has
appeared as a soloist in Canada and
Spain. During her studies in violin
performance, Nemafallah was fhe
recipient of numerous awards and
scholarships, including the University

of Toronto William and Phyllis
Waters Graduating Award given to
a graduating student deemed by
the university to have the greatest
potential for making an important
contribution to the field of music.

Committed to education, Sarah
Nematallah completed a Master’s
degree in Music Education at
the University of Toronto, where
she researched topics related to
music philosophy and cognition,
especially connections between
music and language. She has given
presentations on topics related to
music performance and education for
organizations such as the Canadian
Arts Presenting Organization
(CAPACOA) and Chamber Music
America.

Caitlin Boyle is originally from
Dundas, Ontario. She began
playing the viola at age three at the
Hamilton Suzuki School of Music.
Subsequently she completed her
Bachelor of Music at the Glenn Gould
School, with Steven Dann; an Artist
Diploma at the Hochschule fur Musik
Muenchen, with Hariolf Schlichtig; a
Masters of Music at San Diego State
University, with Brian Chen; and a
Graduate Diploma at McGill under the
guidance of Andre Roy.

Boyle has played with the Toronto
Symphony Youth Orchestra,
the National Youth Orchestra of
Canada, and the Munich Symphony
Orchestra. Her passion for chamber
music was fostered at the Southern
Ontario Chamber Music Institute and
the Domaine Forget Chamber Music
Sessions, and continued to grow

through the support of such artists as
Richard Lester, Terence Helmer, and
the St. Lawrence String Quartet.

Caitlin Boyle has been a member of
the Cecilia String Quartet since spring
2006. She completed her Doctorate
of Musical Arts at the University of
Toronto in the fall of 2015, having
worked with Katharine Rapoport. In
her spare time she enjoys bike riding,
reading, and the theatre.

From Qctober 2017 to May 2018, the
CSC is pleased to welcome cellist
Claire Bryant, who will perform
with the quartet and take part in
teaching and other CSQ activities
at the University of Toronto. Bryant
will step in for cellist Rachel Desoer,
who departed the quartet in Qctober
2017 to honour personal project
commitments.

Claire Bryant has performed at
premier venues such as Carnegie
Hall (New York), Southbank Centre
(UK), Suntory Hall (Japan), Lincoln
Center (New York), and the Barbican
Centre (UK). She is a founding
member of the acclaimed chamber
music collective Decode (an Affiliate
Ensemble of Carnegie Hall) and is
the Principal Cellist of Trinity Wall
Street’s chamber orchestra, Novus
NY. Bryant has appeared as a
soloist with orchestras from South
Carolina to California, and Honduras
to Finland, and has collaborated
closely with artists such as Daniel
Hope, Emanuel Ax, Sir Simon Rattle,
Dawn Upshaw, the Weilerstein Trio,
the Saint Lawrence String Quartet
and the Danish String Quartet. Claire
Bryant is a frequent guest artist with

Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the
Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Carnegie
Hall’s Zankel Band and Ensemble
ACJW, of which she is an alumna.

For more information visit
http://clairebryant.com.

Canadian pianist Patricia Parr
has had a brilliant career since her
first recital at age six. Before the
age of 10, as “Patsy Parr,” she
had appeared as soloist with the
Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the
Rochester Civic Orchestra, the New
York Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall,
and was well known as a recitalist
appearing throughout Ontario and
Western Canada. Since then, she
has been heard in concert, on radio,
television, and with major symphony
orchestras including the Philadelphia
Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra,
Pittsburgh Symphony, and frequently
with the TSO.

Internationally renowned for the
sensitivity and integrity of her playing,
her outstanding qualities as a
chamber musician have resulted in
invitations to numerous festivals and
collaborations with many ensembles
- among them the Guarneri, Orford,
St. Lawrence, and Vermeer String
Ouartets. Parr toured Australia in
1975 and 1979 as a member of the
Trio Concertante and formed the
University of Toronto Faculty Trio with
Lorand Fenyves, violin, and Vladimir
Orloff, cello, while teaching at the
Faculty of Music. She is a founding
member of the AMICI Chamber
Ensemble, which has presented a
regular concert series in Toronto
since 1988. She toured with them in
Atlantic Canada, Eastern Europe, and

Mexico. AMICI is heard frequently on
the CBC and, with them, she made
nine critically acclaimed recordings.

Parr is a graduate of the Curtis
Institute of Music, where she
studied with Isabelle Vengerova
and Rudolf Serkin. In 1974, she
returned to Canada to teach piano
and chamber music at the Faculty of
Music, University of Toronto. Since
her retirement, she has served as
chair and on the advisory council of
Reaching Cut Through Music (an
outreach program for the children of
St. Jamestown), performing on many
of their fundraisers. In 2016, she
published her memoir Above Parr:
Memoir of a Child Prodigy with Prism
Publishers.

Patricia Parr was appointed a
Member of the Crder of Canada
in 2009. For more information visit
www.patriciaparr.com.

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Photo: George Kash

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This evening’s program would not be possible without the generous
support of donors to the Faculty of Music. The Chamber Music
Program is thriving with exciting work happening on stage and in the
classroom. For the stage, we have appearances on the Chamber
Music Series by both Ensembles in Residence and Visiting Artists. In
the classroom, in addition to their regularly scheduled lessons and
coachings, our students have the opportunity to work with our visitors
in master classes and private coaching sessions.

We need your help - it is our hope that we can continue to present
a variety of chamber ensembles and subsequently provide the
opportunity for our students to work with these acclaimed musicians.

Opportunities exist for individuals to sponsor a visiting ensemble,
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To learn more about supporting Chamber Music at UofT please
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Thank you for your support!

The Faculty of Music gratefully
acknowledges the generosity of
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corporations who gave annual gifts ot
$1,000 or more between July 1,2016
and February 15, 2018, in support ot
our students and programs. Thank
you for the part you are playing
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Anonymous (7)

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